Historical Essay

The Last Spikes Everlasting Steam Last Spike Site Reading List Essay	End of the Tracks: Establishing the Lucin Cutoff
Promontory Summit, Utah Territory, a most unlikely place for something as monumental as the Nation's first Transcontinental Railroad to be completed. With no wood or coal for fuel, and the nearest water eight miles away, it posed logistical problems as the terminus for Union Pacific and Central Pacific, the two railroad companies building the Pacific Railroad. But this is where the surveyors put the line, and where negotiations had placed the final meeting point, so here the railroads came together on May 10, 1869. Two other routes had been considered and rejected. Passage through Salt Lake City and across the salt desert south of the Great Salt Lake was eliminated because of unstable ground and absolutely no water. A plan to build directly across the lake, starting at Ogden, was abandoned because the lake had been rising for several years and neither the water's depth nor the soil composition beneath were known. The only other route available ran approximately one hundred forty-seven miles between Ogden and Lucin, north of the Salt Lake and across Promontory Summit. The problem with this course was the sudden rise to the only natural break in the Promontory and North Promontory Mountains. In just three miles, the railroad would have to raise itself six hundred and nineteen feet, from an elevation of four thousand two hundred eighty-six feet to four thousand nine hundred and five feet, through tough "blacklime" limestone rock cuts and across impressive ravines. The most difficult construction Union Pacific encountered along its entire route was the eastern approach to Promontory Summit, and not since tunneling through the Sierra Nevada Mountains had the Central Pacific confronted such hard work. The second steepest grade on the entire Pacific Railroad was required to surmount the east slope. To overcome this grade, all freight and most long passenger trains were obliged to have at least one additional helper or hog, engine. In 1883, the Central Pacific Railroad was reorganized into the Southern Pacific Railroad, but the route over Promontory remained the same. Just to get 1,000 tons of freight from Ogden to Lucin took three locomotives thirty to thirty-six hours. Each day's operation over Promontory cost the railroad up to fifteen hundred dollars. Even in good weather, bottlenecks and traffic jams were common, and in winter, snow could pack the cuts too deep for snowplows to clear, closing the route for days. By 1902 the Great Salt Lake had receded and Southern Pacific reconsidered the route across it. A path was surveyed east from Lucin across fifty-six miles of desert and thirty-two miles of water to Ogden, touching Promontory Point (thirty-seven miles south of Promontory Summit). The lake's depth along the route ranged from only twenty feet to thirty-five feet. Compared to the cost of operating over Promontory Summit, the cost of building what was to be known as the Lucin Cutoff seemed feasible, and construction began. Where it crossed the Salt Lake, the Lucin Cutoff was originally planned as a large fill, but only a total of twenty miles of the line at different points could be successfully filled before the lake bed became too unstable. Spanning the remaining sections required twelve miles of trestle built upon 38,000 wooden pilings, with some piles as long as 120 feet to reach solid ground. On March 8, 1904, the Lucin Cutoff was opened to traffic. Constructed at a cost of eight million dollars, it shortened the line by forty-four miles of track and enough curves to complete several circles, and decreased travel time to Lucin beyond original estimates. By shortening the route and avoiding Promontory's slopes, Southern Pacific saved up to sixty thousand dollars monthly. Eventually, the technology and machinery was developed to replace the trestles and fills with a sturdy rock causeway. Back at Promontory, traffic slowed considerably to one mixed passenger and freight train a day, with an additional freight train occasionally making a run. These trains, which served isolated ranches, farms, and several communities along the Promontory Branch, or Old Line, eventually dropped to one every other day, then twice weekly. In 1938, regular traffic ceased and the line was abandoned. In 1942, for World War II, the rails of the Old Line between Lucin and Corinne were removed for scrap. The towns along the line were also abandoned and fell into ruin, and the area was allowed to return to quiet desert. All that remained were the grades and a lonely monument. What had taken place at Promontory might have been lost, save for a few who remembered. Today, thanks in large part to the efforts of those few, Golden Spike National Historic Site has been established. The spot where the railroad was completed appears now as it did on May 10, 1869; however, only one and a half miles of track have been relaid. Two replica locomotives visit the spot each day in the summer, but no trains pass through here. The Lucin Cutoff, built to save time and money, continues to serve as Southern Pacific's main Transcontinental line.